65% People Feel That Xiaomi Mi4 Is Losing Out To OnePlus One [POLL]

When Xiaomiannounced the launch of much awaited flagship smartphone Mi4 in India, people expected to see a powerful smartphone beast complimented with a great work of craftsmanship. But after a month of Mi4 launch, looks like the device has failed to meet the expectations – at least in India. According to an online poll, 65% of participants feel that OnePlus One (OPO) has an edge over Xiaomi Mi4. More than 1,000 people participated in the poll and OnePlus One wins over Mi4 with a big margin, with 698 votes in its favor.

Though we didn’t ask the participants what really disappointed them, but after spending some time on the internet and reading few of the top reviews’ comments and feedback, it was crystal clear that Xiaomi Mi4 failed to reach the bar it had set by itself. And, to make the situation worse for Xiaomi, OnePlus One changed its sales strategy in India. The Company adopted invite-free sales model right at the time when Xiaomi was busy in setting up its stage on Flipkart.

But the commencement of OnePlus One sales on the same day was not the sole reason people shied away from Xiaomi Mi4. While people were expecting the identical Mi4 specs that were launched in its homegrown market China, the company decided to introduce a rather scaled down model of the device. The missing 4G capability, launch of 16 GB storage variant apparently hurt the people the most.

“If you are looking at the complete package, then the OnePlus One is the one to go for as it adds 4G support, and has significantly more memory. The OnePlus One is also likely to get Android updates faster and in general usage it feels like the faster phone.But at the same time, the One Plus One also costs Rs.2,000 extra.If you do not mind the limited memory and the omission of 4G support then the Mi 4 is the better phone. But if you need 4G and is willing to spend Rs.2,000 more for it, One Plus One is the phone for you”, quotes IndiaToday.

Which one should you be buying? If you can make do with limited storage, aren’t looking forward to try 4G (to be realistic, it’ll take some time before going mainstream) and don’t want a phablet-sized device, the Mi 4 is your best bet. If you want to store your entire music library on your phone, want a big phone and like stock Android with high customizability, look no further: the OnePlus One it is.

So, what really went against Xiaomi Mi4?

Mostly, it was the pre-launch expectations and reduced price policy of OnePlus One. Xiaomi took more than six months to bring Mi4 to India and all these months the company kept convincing users that engineers are busy in optimizing the device for the best performance in Indian scenario. However, after over six-month long wait, the company apparently found it difficult to meet the benchmark with its 4G capability in India. It’s important to mention here that, currently, in India 4G network works on 2,300mAh band, while in most of the other countries, including China, 1800 band is ideal for 4G network. Therefore, a company has to go through a design change process to make its device 4G compatible. Besides, the closest competitor of Mi4, OnePlus One introduced the 4G capable 16 GB variant at a very competitive price. People found more value-for-money in a device that is cheaper by Rs. 1,000, supports 4G network and sports a bit bigger screen.

As Xiaomi was racing against the time while its design engineers wanted to buy more time to make it work on 4G network without compromising on performance, the Apple of China – as Xiaomi is known – decided to introduce 3G only variant in India. The company reportedly decided to shift focus on Mi Note to make a 4G enabled device for India. According to few rumors, the XiaomiMi Note would be launched in India in July this year.

Overall, Engadget has rated Xiaomi Mi4 with 82 points, as compared to OnePlus One with 90 points. The impeccable construction makes Xiaomi Mi4 the best hardware seen in all year, but people are expecting more value-for-money from smartphones these days. As Xiaomi has just launched the 64 Gb variant of Mi4, hope it could win over OnePlus One now.